Yesterdays: Construction worker's backhoe tumbles off Sun Road
Fred Lyon, Life photographer, apparently posing on top of the wrecking ball used to clear forests for the Hungry Horse Dam. As near as we can tell, this photo, taken Sept. 12, 1950, by Mel Ruder was not published in the newspaper.
70 years ago
Sept. 15, 1950
A shortage of freight cars was threatening to delay the Hungry Horse dam project. The dam only had two days of cement on hand. The dam was slated to begin water storage in fall fo 1951 and start producing power in 1952.
60 years ago
Sept. 16, 1960
Half Moon and Lake Five were both treated with Rotenone to kill stunted perch and sunfish that had taken over the lakes. The product kills fish. The plan was to restock the lakes with trout so they’d be a better fishery.
50 years ago
Sept. 18, 1970
The Libby Dam contract was now 75 percent complete.
Twenty hundred forty-seven hunters and 671 head of horses were in the Big Prairie district to
hunt elk.
40 years ago
Sept. 18, 1980
The Columbia Falls city council approved a measure that would require all future employees to live inside the city limits.
The idea was city employees worked here, so they should also pay city taxes.
30 years ago
Sept. 20, 1990
A huge new rotor was featured on the front page photo. It was being placed in the Hungry Horse dam and dwarfed the four men that were beneath it, carefully easing the big gear and shaft into place.
20 years ago
Sept. 14, 2000
Deer Park School was adding a new gymnasium, but it would have to do more fundraising to finish the project. A wayward black bear was hanging around a fast food joint in Evergreen, earning the name “taco bear.” Biologists caught and moved the bruin.
10 years ago
Sept. 16, 2010
A construction worker on the Sun Road was thankful to be alive after the small excavator he was operating tipped over and tumbled over the side of the highway near the East Side Tunnel.
The man jumped from the rig and it tumbled about 200 feet down the slope.
He fell 35 feet and then tumbled another 100 feet himself, but he was able to stand up right after the incident, though he did require an airlift to the hospital.